Anthony Drayton and Taffin Khan will use the chess competition at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games as preparation for another major international assignment later this year.
The Guyanese players are scheduled to represent the country at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September, but will first compete at the CAC Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Drayton, a FIDE Master, and Khan, a Candidate Master, will participate in the Rapid and Blitz competitions from July 25 to 28. The round-robin contests will be staged at the Chess Pavilion of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center.
Both players earned qualification for the final rounds through a hybrid tournament in January. They will compete in the Absolute Category against players from Barbados, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
Drayton enters the tournament as Guyana’s reigning National Blitz Champion. Khan has also spent several years competing at the national and international levels and will seek to strengthen his performances in the two shorter formats.
The Guyana Chess Federation said the participation of the two players represented another milestone in its development. Drayton and Khan will be among the Guyanese athletes representing the country in different sporting disciplines at the Games.
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